Captain William Oldrey (1787—1851) was an officer in the Royal Navy and later a colonial settler of New South Wales, Australia. He is particularly associated with the early days of Broulee, on the South Coast of New South Wales.
Early life and naval career
Oldrey was born on 23 November 1787, in Devon, England.
He joined the Royal Navy in June 1804. His first ship, on which he attained the rank of Midshipman, in July 1804, was Warrior. His first ship's captain was William Bligh. In 1805, following Bligh's appointment as Governor of New South Wales, it was aboard Porpoise, bringing Bligh to the colony in 1806, that Oldrey first visited New South Wales. He returned to England aboard Buffalo in 1807. He may possibly have shared in the prize money won by the Buffalo and 69 other ships, when some Russian naval ships—one carrying the pay for the Russian Mediterranean squadron—were caught in Portsmouth Harbour, at the time that the Tsar Alexander I declared war on Great Britain, in October 1807.
While a Lieutenant aboard Undaunted, and in command of a boat from that frigate, on 3 May 1813, he boarded and took a French brig, while under cannonade from the batteries of Marsaille. On 7 May 1813, he attacked a French schooner protecting a number of coastal vessel, taking two. Despite his best efforts, a wind squall allowed the schooner itself to escape. In this last action, he suffered a fractured thigh bone; for that injury he received a pension.
In command of the cutter Pioneer, he made several seizures of smuggled goods between March 1819 and June 1820,
He attained the rank of Commander, in 1828. The last naval vessel on which he served and commanded, was Hyacinth, in the West Indies, from 1831 to 1832.
While in the navy, Oldrey carried to Africa—presumably aboard Hyacinthe—an African sharif, variously "Abou Beehn Saduky" (possibly Abu bin Sadik) or "Abu Bekr es Siddik" (possibly Abu Bekr es Saddik), who had been found as a slave in Jamaica, living there under the slave name of Edward Donellan. Once freed, he provided information on the geography and routes of his homeland.
Oldrey was promoted to Captain in 1838, but had not been to sea since his time aboard Hyacinthe. He had his naval pension and some savings, and emigrated to New South Wales, leaving Plymouth aboard Andromache, on 8 October 1838.
Migration and Broulee
Oldrey arrived in Sydney in February 1839. He arrived at a time, when the colonial economy was booming, largely as a result of the wool and whaling industries, and a supply of cheap labour in the form of transported convicts.
Early Broulee
After migrating to Australia, Oldrey became a landholder around the newly established town of Broulee. He bought four large pieces of land, to the west, south and north-west of the new town. His land almost surrounded the town, except that in the north (including modern-day Mossy Point) was a large block owned by the Sydney merchants Hughes & Hosking. Oldrey also bought some blocks within the settlement itself. He built a house on his land, about two miles west from the settlement, which he called 'Mount Oldrey'. Oldrey also had other small landholdings in the colony. In 1840, he was a shareholder of the Australian Steam Navigation Company.
Broulee, at the time, was a new, very remote settlement, in which the rule of colonial law was barely established, which lay near the southern boundary of the Nineteen Counties. It was only accessible from the sea, but for some rudimentary tracks linking it to other places on the coastal plain, and to the Corn Trail and a trail through the valleys leading to Araluen, two routes that linked it tenuously to the newly-settled Southern Tablelands, around Braidwood. A postal connection with Braidwood, via the Corn Trail, was established in 1839.
The town plan and allotments of Broulee were laid out by James Larmer in 1839. The purpose of the new settlement was as a seaport for the surrounding hinterland, including the valley of the Moruya River. The river mouth of which was obstructed by a large sandbar, resulting in a shallow dangerous entry. Goods were transshipped at the safe anchorage at Broulee, to and from smaller vessels that could cross the sand bar. However, crossing the river bar was often extremely hazardous.
Oldrey became the settlement's most prominent citizen, and was appointed as the local magistrate, in 1839. In the earliest times, Oldrey's residence 'Mount Oldrey' was used as the temporary courthouse.